Limited legitimacy among academics of centrally driven approaches to internal quality assurance in Vietnam

For more than 15 years, Vietnam has worked to develop a quality assurance (QA) system as part of its effort to reform higher education. The government’s effort seeks to respond to widespread criticism over the quality of training in higher education. The appropriation of western QA mechanisms and the effectiveness of the QA system as it has been implemented, however, is still viewed with scepticism. This paper reports on a study of academics and QA practitioners’ perceptions of quality assurance. Documentation and in-depth interviews were used in the study. The findings show that QA remains a new concept in the country, which appears to have promoted a compliance-driven approach to mandated policies rather than a system that promotes academics’ engagement in continuous improvement. Moreover, the appropriated mechanism may be seen as contradictory to the values respected by academics and rooted in a Confucian society.     

Educator Talk in Long Day Care Nurseries: How Context Shapes Meaning

Little is known about the quality and characteristics of the language used by childcare staff when interacting with infants in non-parental group care settings. This qualitative study analysed the manner in which staff used language when interacting with ten children aged between 9 and 20 months in four different long day care centres in Sydney, Australia. Each infant was audiorecorded for one whole day using a small recording device attached to her/his clothing, which captured all the language spoken directly to, or in their presence of, the infant. The infants and staff were simultaneously videorecorded as they went about their everyday activities, to provide additional contextual information. Using systemic functional linguistics as the theoretical underpinning, the study found that staff members tended to talk to more than one child at a time, limiting their potential to engage in the types of sustained conversations with individual children that have been shown to promote language development. Staff also tended to use language primarily to manage children’s behaviour and provide physical care, rather than using language to encourage children to use their own developing language to represent their experiences in a variety of contexts. The findings have implications for group size, early childhood teacher education and inservice professional development.     

The Emergence of Private Higher Education in Vietnam: Challenges and Opportunities*

In 1986, the government of Vietnam introduced a policy termed “doi moi,” resulting in profound changes to shift the country from being a centrally planned economy to a market economy. With dramatic changes in Vietnam's economic structure resulting from doi moi, it was also essential to carry out reforms in education. One such reform was to allow for privatization to occur in education at all levels. The focus of this paper is the emergence of private higher education in Vietnam in the period following the introduction of doi moi with a special emphasis on the most recent developments in private higher education. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Education and Economic,Political, and Social Change in Vietnam

This paper provides an overview of the complex relations among history, education, political economy, and social change in Vietnam. Vietnam has a long history of education and a literate culture. The evolution of Vietnamese culture and society is characterized by both persistence and change. Social and political persistence and change have been profoundly affected by education in Vietnam. In this paper major external influences on Vietnamese education and social change are considered, including Chinese Confucian influences, French colonial influences, Soviet and US influences during the Cold War, and more contemporary international global influences as Vietnam has become part of the global economy and international regimes. The importance influence of the policy of “doi moi” (economic renovation) introduced in 1986 is seen as resulting in a major transformation in Vietnam. The paper concludes with a discussion of Vietnam’s future and its goals of developing a modern economy through a priority on the development of human capital through a distinctive Vietnamese educational system, drawing eclectically and creatively on diverse external influences.     

Reconceptualising employability of returnees: what really matters and strategic navigating approaches

Higher Education - Although increasing attention has been paid to post-study career trajectories of returnees in emerging economies, there are very few studies on how returnees navigate the home...     

An analysis of small group interactions of Vietnamese students under the Bourdieusian theoretical lens

Group work has been increasingly encouraged and applied in Vietnamese universities. However, very little has been known about how Vietnamese university students work in a group and what the conditions are that help establish an effective group. This study attempted to redress this gap. The research applied Bourdieu’s social field theory to examine experiences of Vietnamese students in groups. It specifically explored Vietnamese students’ perceptions of interactions with ‘cultural and linguistic others’ and how their interactions were constrained and enabled by personal and contextual factors. Employing a qualitative research methodology, the study revealed that student interactions were strongly influenced by the rules set-up in the field, possessing capital resources valued in the field and disposition towards working with other cultures.     

Characteristics of child abuse homicides in the state of Kansas from 1994 to 2007

Objective

This study described the epidemiology of child abuse homicides in the state of Kansas from 1994 to 2007. It focused on obtaining significant details on all recorded child abuse homicides in Kansas during this time frame to provide critical information that can be used for future preventive measures.

Methods

A retrospective case review was conducted on data gathered by the Kansas State Child Death Review Board for all cases of “child abuse homicides” that occurred from 1994 to 2007.

Results

A total of 170 child abuse homicide cases in Kansas between 1994 and 2007 were identified. The majority of these cases (63.5%) were considered fatal child physical abuse. There was a predominance of female victims (55.9%). The vast majority of victims were White (78.8%), followed by Black (17.1%). One to 2-year-olds accounted for the largest age group of children who were victimized (33.5%). For cases with known prenatal care status, 74% of mothers received adequate prenatal care. The largest percentage of victims was children of single mothers (40.6%), with no prior history of child abuse (60%). The majority of deaths occurred in the victim's residence (81.8%). The greatest number of deaths occurred secondary to abusive head trauma (42.9%), followed by asphyxia (21.8%). When a trigger was known, 44.2% involved inconsolable crying. The most common perpetrator was the victim's biological father (26.6%), followed by the victim's biological mother (24.9%), then the victim's mother's male paramour (19.8%).

Conclusions

Familiarity with characteristics involved in child abuse homicide allows for opportunities to enlist important preventive measures. Most child abuse homicides occurred at the hands of the victim's biological parents and in the victim's own residence. Prevention should be focused on parent education and coping mechanisms for the frustrating features of crying in normal infants that lead to shaking or abuse.     

Social structures in the economics of international education: perspectives from Vietnamese international tertiary students

Drawing on the findings from in-depth interviews with Vietnamese international students studying at Australian universities, this article presents insights into the sociological influences that stem from international students' social networks, at home and abroad, and how they impact on students' aspirations and engagement in international education. Underpinned by Bourdieu's social capital framework, this article critically challenges human capital ideology for its assumptions of individualism and utilitarian function of education as economic goals. The implication for international education providers is to create learning and living opportunities that consider students' social and cultural conditions so as to develop their capacity, self-determination and citizenship.     

The threat of #RhetoricNotSoWhite

In seeking an alternative to objectivity in criticism we often characterize the critical experience as something produced by the critic's mind. Such an assumption causes us to embrace the very metaphysics that justifies objectivity in the first place. We can escape the dilemma by recognizing the role of appreciation in some criticism. The appreciative critic cares for what‐is‐as‐it‐is and so is open to the disclosures of sensual(aesthetic) revelation.     

Forms of capital and agency as mediations in negotiating employability of international graduate migrants

This study deployed a qualitative approach to explore an alternative perspective regarding graduate migrants’ employability. Twenty graduate migrants in Australia participated in in-depth interviews. Findings revealed graduate migrants faced various challenges in the target labour market, and to successfully secure employment it was important for them to develop key forms of capital – i.e., excellent technical knowledge, relationships with ‘significant others’, strong career identity and psychological resilience, and exercise agency in interlinking these capitals so that they could make use of their strengths and coat weaknesses. Results from the study imply that managing, teaching, and professional staff members should collaborate closely to develop well-rounded programmes to sufficiently equip international students with multidimensional resources.